Disappointment of the Month: I would say that My Name is Lucy Barton was a disappointment (because it was), but I also didn't have any sort of positive expectations for a novel from Elizabeth Strout. I'd previously read her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, now this one is in the Tournament of Books. It's a miss for me.

Discovery of the Month: Damn close for me in the running of best book is Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing.

Worth Noting: For years I've referenced a book that I read as one of the crazier
titles / concepts for a novel, which would be George Bush, Dark Prince
of Love (written about the first President Bush, this is a real book).
Well, Lydia Millet wrote it and now I've read a second one of her books

Gender Breakdown: 11 of the 14 books I read in February were written by women. This brings my total for the year to 17/30, or 56.66%.

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Now that another month has come and gone (and then yet another has come and gone because I'm so late in getting this up) let's take a look at the books I read in January

1. Standard Hollywood Depravity, by Adam Christopher
2. Order to Kill, by Kyle Mills
3. The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon
4. Agents of Dreamland, by Caitlin R. Kiernan
5. The Last Days of New Paris, by China Mieville
6. Scrappy Little Nobody, by Anna Kendrick
7. Grief is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter
8. The Warren, by Brian Evenson
9. Arcanum Unbounded, by Brandon Sanderson
10. Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher
11. Black Wave, by Michelle Tea
12. The Magicians, by Lev Grossman
13. Miniatures, by John Scalzi
14. A Time of Omens, by Katharine Kerr
15. Brother's Ruin, by Emma Newman
16. The Autumn Republic, by Brian McClellan

Best Book of the Month: It's always a delight to read more Deverry.

Disappointment of the Month: I'm reading through the short list of the Tournament of Books and Grief is the Thing With Feathers did not hit with me. It's a weird combination of prose and poetry and it's not for me.

Discovery of the Month: There's a part of me that thinks I could potentially be friends with Anna Kendrick. Independent of that, I really enjoyed her memoir.

Worth Noting: My wife has told me that I need to read The Magicians for several years now and I finally broke down and read the book. It's not that I don't trust her, it's more that I keep having other things out from the library to read or review,

Gender Breakdown: 6 out of the 16 books I read in January were written by women, which is a huge step back from the last two years of finishing over 50%, but it is only one month and the first of the year and since I'm posting this so late, I can tell you that February was much stronger and flipped almost entirely the other way.

Monday, February 20, 2017

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is pleased to announce the nominees for the 51st Annual
Nebula Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic
Presentation, and the Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult
Science Fiction or Fantasy Book.Novel

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Now that another month has come and gone, let's take a look at the books I read last month.

1. The Rise of Io, by Wesley Chu
2. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
3. Everything Belongs to the Future, by Laurie Penny
4.The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred, by Greg Egan
5. News of the World, by Paulette Jiles
6. You'll Grow Out of It, by Jessie Klein
7. Barkskins, by Annie Proulx
8. Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone

9. Cold-Forged Flame, by Maria Brennan

10. Talking As Fast as I Can, by Lauren
Graham

11. Today Will Be Different, by Maria
Semple

12. After the Crown, by K.B. Wagers
13. Swing Time, by Zadie Smith
14. The Mothers, by Brit Bennett

Best Book of the Month: The Mothers is excellent. You probably come here for genre recommendations, but go read The Mothers. So good.

Disappointment of the Month: None, really.

Discovery of the Month: Whhhhhyyyyy have I never read Max Gladstone before. Three Parts Dead is his debut novel and it's fantastic. I love the setting, I love the characaters, I love how smart it is, and I can't wait to see how he grows as a writer.

Worth Noting: If you were concerned about how Wesley Chu would pull off a Tao-verse novel without actually featuring Tao and a Tan, rest assured that The Rise of Io is excellent.

Gender Breakdown: 10 out of the 14 books I read in December were written by women. This brings my final total for 2016 to 95 out of 169, or 56.21%. This is the second consecutive (and possibly second ever) year with at least half of the books I've read written by women.